Baba Farid taught that we should answer harsh words not with harsh words, but with sweetness and patience, the way sugar sweetens whatever it touches.
Once, some unkind boys threw stones at him. Instead of growing angry, he calmly wished them well, refusing to let their unkindness turn his own heart bitter.
“Do not answer rudeness with rudeness,” he sang. “Walk gently, speak sweetly, and let no one's harshness steal the sweetness from your own heart.”